This week Shag and Rob take a look at “Black Bison Rides Again!” from The Fury of Firestorm #25 (July 1984) by Gerry Conway, Rafael Kayanan, Romeo Tanghal, Carl Gafford, and Adam Kubert. Then Rob can’t quite to bring himself to cover Aquaman #s 45 and 46, so he decides to talk about First Issue Special: Lady Cop (July 1975) by Robert Kanigher and John Rosenberger instead. Plus YOUR Listener Feedback! Special thanks to Siskoid. Lady Cop played by Isabel Goguen.

As always, thanks to my co-host Rob Kelly, Sea King of THE AQUAMAN SHRINE, for doing all the post-production on these episodes! Opening theme, “That Time is Now,” by Michael Kohler. Special thanks to Daniel Adams and Ashton Burge with their band The Bad Mamma Jammas for our fantastic original closing theme!

7 Comments

Silver Deer definitely needs some Ryan Daly love. No, not that kind. No one wants to see that.

I remember her truncated Who’s Who entry, but that’s about it. Man, lots of attempted rape in this F&W! Glad to see the scumbags get what’s comin’ to ’em!

The Aquaman comics sound horrid. Moving on.

Lady Cop sounds like a LOT of win! I’d say Angie Dickinson’s Police Woman series was a big influence on this comic, as well as the generic cop show genre that was HUGE back in the 70s. John Rosenberger drew some Lois Lane and Supergirl over in Sueprman Family after this.

Definitely looking forward to hearing more First Issue Special coverage. It was nice to hear Rob happy about comics two weeks in a row.

So during the listener feedback section, Xum called the backup feature you guys do “Back Strokes and Back Drafts”—have you officially named it? If yes, WHAT DO I WIN?? I recall hearing that a Justice League t-shirt was being offered years ago when this first got announced…

In between posting to my nonexistent BATO blog, I’ve also been busy reading some CA-lassic Fury of Firestorm issues (thanks to your podcast). I read the Tokamak run, Shag’s favorite. It was a blast! What wonderfully wacky run, with too many things going on that by rights should not have worked but dammit it all came together somehow. That’s one thing I love about these old Fury of Firestorm comics, they’re really a perfect representation of just how much story was packed into comics back then. And FoF did it really well, so congrats to Gerry Conway on pulling that off.

This issue of FoF looks awesome. What a stunning cover! I haven’t read any of the Rodriquez issues but I’m really hoping to someday. He and Giordano seem made a spectacular team.

Lady Cop. Well, now I know what Rob was posting on Facebook! As always, you guys keep finding hidden gems from our youth, which just means that my back issue comics wishlist continues to grow exponentially.

And kudos on your decision to drop the current Aquaman run coverage, Rob. No need to waste your time on a book you don’t like. Now you’ve freed up more time for yourself for 1st Issue Special readin’!!

I was a big fan of the Firestorm book when this came out. Count me in those who think Silver Deer is very attractive. Although I still wonder, with her power over games of chance, why she just didn’t clean out casinos, amass a huge fortune, and wield power the old-fashioned way – economically. I think this story ends up being a turning point for the title though. After this arc, I think the book takes a down turn.

As for Cat People, I love both versions of the film. The original is very moody and uses lighting and shadows to evoke a sense of dread. The remake with Natassia Kinski and Malcolm McDowell is much more in your face about the sultriness and violence. Suffice it to say, that movie made me a lifelong Kinski fan.

Love the Lady Cop issue and feel I need to get my hands on it. I also feel like I need to include those VD panels somewhere in a lecture! A silent killer like an underground river! Brilliant.

As for other 1st issue specials, it is clear that James Robinson is a big fan as Atlas, Codename Assassin, and (blue skin) Starman all started in the title and became big parts of runs he wrote, particularly Superman and JLA.

Man, I remember that cover of LADY COP sitting on the comics rack when I was a little kid. It was there forever…..cuz no little boy wanted to buy it!! I think I may have picked it up and scanned it one week when there was nothing else new I wanted, but a lady cop as the hero? No way, man!
Now I totally wish I had picked up an issue.
Thanks for sharing this, Rob!

“Although I still wonder, with her power over games of chance, why [Silver Deer] just didn’t clean out casinos, amass a huge fortune, and wield power the old-fashioned way – economically.”

See also: the Fantastic Four’s adversary, The Wizard. If you were a scientific genius who invented a reliable means of nullifying gravity, would you a) patent the technology and legitimately reap billions in royalties from the airline companies, or b) strap on an anti-gravity backpack and fly about robbing banks?

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